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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25918375">Family Values</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/artenon/pseuds/artenon'>artenon</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Gen, Mostly Gen, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 03:27:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,172</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25918375</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/artenon/pseuds/artenon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“It’s… about my father,” she said, and pinched her lips together. Her eyes glistened, but she wasn’t crying anymore.</p><p>Felix suppressed a roll of his eyes. Fathers really were the worst bunch.</p><p>[Post-Chapter 9: The Cause of Sorrow]</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Annette Fantine Dominic/Felix Hugo Fraldarius</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>In Harmony: An Annette/Felix Zine</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Family Values</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>hello! this is the fic i wrote for the netteflix zine "In Harmony", which i had the pleasure of co-modding. i hope you like it! :')</p><p>thank you <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/blacktreecle">blacktreecle</a> and <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/ailurea">ailurea</a> for the beta, and to <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/saunatonttu/">saunatonttu</a> for giving it an extra read when i was nervous about my characterization &lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Against his baser instincts, Felix neatly refolded the letter rather than crumple it. He tucked it back inside its envelope with a heavy sigh.</p><p>Really, now of all times…</p><p>Felix looked sourly at his father’s neat penmanship, the condensed cursive letters spelling out his name. He could only guess what had prompted his father to send for his assistance now; it wasn’t like the bandit problem was new.</p><p>He would go, of course; that was never in question. He just wished he could do so without seeing his father. His old man was clearly operating on his usual warped ideals, because really, how much did he expect one person to do?</p><p>He could bring help… but the only person Felix could ask had hardly left their room all week.</p><p>Not that Felix blamed the professor for withdrawing. They’d just lost their father, after all. It would’ve been worse if they had pretended to brush it off. Worse still if they’d claimed something like, <em>He wouldn’t want me to mourn.</em></p><p>
  <em>(He died like a true knight.)</em>
</p><p>But one could not wallow in grief forever. It was vital what the professor did next, whether they remained rooted in the past or recognized their responsibilities in the present. Felix wanted to believe the professor would lift their head and face forward, but grief could cut deep into someone’s core, twist them into something entirely different.</p><p>He didn’t want that to happen to them.</p><p>
  <em>Mourn him, and then let him rest. Please. The dead don’t need you. There are others who do.</em>
</p><p>He felt trapped, suddenly, the space between him and his desk too small, and Felix stood abruptly, then whipped around and caught his chair before it clattered over. Dimitri was in his room next door, and Felix absolutely did not want him coming to ask what happened.</p><p>Thinking about Dimitri made the trapped feeling worse. Felix spun around and strode out of the room, down the hall and then the stairs in quick, light steps.</p><p>He veered left towards the training grounds, already running drills in his head en route—something which proved to be a mistake as he almost immediately walked into someone.</p><p>“Sorry,” he muttered. And then he blinked, because Annette was looking up at him through tear-blurred eyes.</p><p>“Oh, Felix.” Annette sniffed noisily.</p><p>“Er,” Felix said. His stomach swooped. He’d never seen Annette upset to the point of tears, and comforting wasn’t exactly his forte.</p><p>Annette swiped the back of her hand over her eyes and glared at him. “You are absolutely, positively the worst!”</p><p>Well. That was not what Felix had been expecting. “What?”</p><p>“The worst!” Annette cried. “You’re just always— Oh, I can’t believe this!”</p><p>Felix scratched the back of his head. “Okay, what did I do this time?”</p><p>He considered it, but there really couldn’t be anything; he’d hardly spoken to her at all today. He hadn’t caught her singing—which always seemed to embarrass her, for some reason—and surely bumping into her wouldn’t be enough to set her off.</p><p>Annette huffed. “Just pretend you never saw me, okay?”</p><p><em>Forget what you heard. Pretend you never saw me.</em> Annette was always asking him to do impossible things. Felix would be amused if she didn’t seem so distressed.</p><p>Annette turned, and Felix realized they were right outside her room. That was probably for the best. Annette could process whatever it was that was bothering her in her room, and Felix could continue on his way to the training grounds.</p><p>Except it didn’t feel right leaving her to be upset by herself. Which was ridiculous, because if <em>Felix</em> was upset he’d want to be left alone, but… Annette wasn’t Felix, and he couldn’t help but think that someone like her should have company.</p><p>“What’s the matter?” The question came out gruffer than he’d meant. Annette froze, her hand on her door. Felix could have kicked himself. He thought about what might be upsetting her and tried again. “Is it because of what happened last week?”</p><p>Annette shook her head slightly, staring at the ground. She was holding something in her other hand, Felix realized. Some sort of wooden doll, it looked like.</p><p>“Or I can leave you alone,” Felix said when she remained silent. What was he thinking? He wasn’t good at this sort of thing. And Annette must have known it; that was why she wished he hadn’t bumped into her.</p><p>“No,” Annette said quickly. “You can. Um. Well, let’s go inside.”</p><p>She opened the door and gestured him inside without saying anything.</p><p>The door clicked shut, and Annette moved past him and sank heavily onto the bed. Felix hesitated, unsure if he should sit with her and waiting for some sort of cue, but Annette just stared at the doll in her hands, breathing unsteadily and not saying anything.</p><p>Felix turned the chair at the desk around to face the bed. Annette looked up at the <em>thump</em> of its legs on the carpeted floor.</p><p>She waited for him to sit before she spoke. “It’s… about my father,” she said, and pinched her lips together. Her eyes glistened, but she wasn’t crying anymore.</p><p>Felix suppressed a roll of his eyes. Fathers really were the worst bunch.</p><p>“He’s the man who calls himself Gilbert, isn’t he?” Felix said. He’d recognized the knight who’d accompanied them to confront Miklan, though it had been Dimitri who had identified him.</p><p>Annette’s eyes widened fractionally, but she didn’t seem altogether too surprised that Felix knew Gilbert’s true identity.</p><p>“Yes,” she said. “He left home and… He’s here now, but he’s always avoiding me. When he summoned me earlier, I thought… I don’t know what I thought. But after the professor’s father… And he’s leaving in a few hours with the rest of the knights… He summoned me, and I was happy, because he was thinking of me. But he gave me this.”</p><p>She held up the wooden doll to show him. It was decently made, but unpolished enough that Felix guessed Annette’s father must have made it himself.</p><p>“This… this child’s toy,” Annette said, fingers tightening around it. “It just… made me realize how much of my life he’s missed, that he still sees me like that.”</p><p>Felix looked at Annette—the droop of her shoulders, the soft downward pull of her mouth—and curled his hand into a fist. Her stumbling half-sentences didn’t give him the full picture, but it gave him enough.</p><p>“Your father is full of shit,” he said bluntly.</p><p>Annette inhaled sharply. “Felix—”</p><p>“He is.” Felix shrugged. “He abandoned you because he couldn’t handle his guilt, not that leaving would accomplish anything. The past is the past.”</p><p>“Felix! How could you say that?”</p><p>Felix blinked. The tears had spilled over, but Annette looked furious rather than distraught, her brows knit low on her forehead, pinching her face into a fierce glare.</p><p>“You don’t know how important His Majesty was to Father,” she said, and Felix snorted.</p><p>“Oh, I can guess. My father is just the same. More obsessed with seeking made-up approval from a dead man than with what’s in front of him.”</p><p>Annette shook her head. She clasped the wooden doll with both hands, close to her chest like a prayer. “Don’t be cruel, Felix. They’re hurting.”</p><p>“That doesn’t give them the right to hurt others. You can’t expect me to believe that you’re happy about your father’s decisions.”</p><p>“I’m not,” Annette cried, “but I can’t hate him for it, either!”</p><p>“Because you’re clinging to sentimentality,” Felix said, and he was getting more worked up over this than he meant to, but he wanted her to understand. “You shouldn’t expend yourself caring about someone who doesn’t value you.”</p><p>Annette’s father really was just like Felix’s own. Both so concerned with duty and their supposed failures, with none left over to spare for their families. Felix hated them both.</p><p>“You’re being really awful right now,” Annette said quietly, tears streaming down her face, and Felix flinched.</p><p>What was he doing? Wasn’t he supposed to be making her feel better, or something? That’s what he was trying to do, anyway. He knew the truth he was telling wasn’t a pretty one, but Annette would feel better once she accepted it. She just had to listen to him.</p><p>“I am how I always am,” Felix said.</p><p>“I don’t think this is about my father anymore,” Annette said, tilting her chin up, somehow looking haughty despite the tear tracks on her cheeks. “I think it’s about yours.”</p><p>“It’s about yours,” Felix said. “And mine. And all the fools in the Kingdom who glorify duty and death. I’ll bet your father wishes he were there that day, so that he would have died too. What’s the point? That would have only increased the tragedy.”</p><p>“Oh,” Annette whispered, softening.</p><p>Felix clenched his teeth. He shouldn’t have said that, because now Annette was looking at him with eyes that knew too much. He wasn’t sure how much she knew about him, about Glenn, but there was a sorrowful sort of understanding in her gaze that Felix couldn’t handle, and he turned away, crossing his arms tight across his chest.</p><p>A knight’s duty was protecting their lord, not dying for them. Why did everyone, why did his father think it was an honor that Glenn had died for the late king?</p><p>It wasn’t an honor.</p><p>It was a tragedy.</p><p>All death was tragedy.</p><p>Annette touched his arm. “My father is hurting,” she said.</p><p>Felix turned back to her. Annette was leaning forward on the bed, reaching out for him. Felix uncrossed his arms and let her take his hand. It was a little embarrassing, but he probably owed it to her for making her cry.</p><p>“I’m sure yours is too,” Annette said. “You’re right—what happened was a tragedy. But that’s why I can’t judge them too harshly. I’m not sure what your father did to upset you, but… Well, maybe neither of them made the best choices, and maybe they’re just plain wrong, but you can’t lose someone close to you and just be okay.”</p><p>She was clasping his hand almost hard enough to hurt, but Felix didn’t say anything. It didn’t compare to the ache in his chest. He didn’t want to admit it, but his scorn towards his father wasn’t nearly as clear-cut as he pretended it was.</p><p>It was true that Felix hated, <em>hated</em> the way his father glorified Glenn’s death, the way he obsessed over doing right by the late king, but he didn’t have it in him to hate the man himself.</p><p>By the goddess, he wanted to. He didn’t want to care about him. He didn’t want to worry.</p><p>His father had been dealing with the bandit problem without him for over half a year now. Felix didn’t want to think such foolish thoughts as <em>I hope he’s okay</em>, but—especially after what had happened to the professor’s father… Well, he couldn’t help but think it.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” Felix said.</p><p>Annette looked at him in surprise, and hurriedly wiped her tears away with her sleeve—although she didn’t, Felix noted, let go of his hand. “What?”</p><p>“I don’t agree with your father, and I realize now that you don’t either. But you want to treat him with patience and I’m sorry for disrespecting that.”</p><p>Felix had to live with this conflict, hatred and love in the same breath. He didn’t know if he could ever forgive his father, but he couldn’t begrudge Annette for trying to forgive hers; she was stronger than him, in ways he’d never realized.</p><p>“Oh,” Annette said. “Thank you… I think?”</p><p>Felix shrugged uncomfortably. “But if your father doesn’t come to his senses soon and realize what he left, I won’t ever forgive him.”</p><p>That drew a small chuckle out of Annette. Not that Felix had been trying to make her laugh at that moment; he was completely serious. Annette was… she was a joy. He couldn’t understand how anyone could choose to leave her.</p><p>“That was almost touching, Felix,” Annette said.</p><p>“Whatever,” Felix muttered. His cheeks felt warm.</p><p>“Hey.” Annette squeezed his hand. “Did something happen? Earlier, I mean. You can talk to me if something’s bothering you.”</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>“You walked into me,” Annette reminded him. “It’s not like you to be so distracted.”</p><p>Felix hesitated. He’d thought the professor was the only person he could talk to about this. Felix wasn’t stupid; he knew how abrasive he could be, and that he wasn’t entirely well-liked by his classmates. But the professor wasn’t bothered by all that; they always took him seriously and treated him just the same as everyone else.</p><p>Maybe Annette wasn’t bothered either, because here she was, still asking after him even after everything he’d said, looking at him and smiling encouragingly, as if he hadn’t made her cry.</p><p>Felix shook his head. There she went, asking for the impossible again. Yet somehow, this time, he thought he could do it.</p><p>“I received a message from my father…”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>thanks so much for reading! and please check out the <a href="https://twitter.com/NetteflixZine">zine twitter</a> to see some of the other wonderful works from the zine!</p><p> </p><p>  <a href="https://twitter.com/qorktree">my twitter</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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